The Hamon Arts Library may have its official home off the Boulevard at SMU, but holdings from its special collections can be found worldwide. Hamon has two special collections: the Bywaters Special Collections, which focuses on the visual and performing arts primarily in the 20th century, and the G. William Jones Film and Video Collection. The Jerry Bywaters Special Collections Wing is located in Hamon, and the Jones collection can be found in a climate-controlled storage facility in the Meadows School of the Arts. Even so, items from these collections can be found miles away from the Hilltop. Here are some examples of the especially well-traveled, and where they can currently be found:
- Grace Museum, Abilene, TX: From the Bywaters Special Collections, Texas artist William Lester is loaning archival items for an exhibition that opens in November.
- Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Washington, DC: A permanent exhibit called Entertaining America includes in the display of the history of children’s television a rare clip of “Captain Kangaroo” from the G. William Jones Film & Video Collection.
- Borscht Belt Film Festival, Borscht Belt Museum, Ellenville, NY: A screening in November will display the Yiddish language film CATSKILL HONEYMOON, from the G. William Jones Film & Video Collection. (As the Hamon director notes, “Ellenville is in the Catskills, of course!”)
- Archivio Storico Ricordi, Milan, Italy: Here one can find exhibitions in Berlin and Milan related to the role of Ricordi publishers in the opera composer Puccini’s career using new technical innovations to show the influences of new media on musical theater. The G. William Jones Film & Video Collection licensed and loaned a copy of a silent film from the Sulpher Springs Collection of early film, Tracked by Bloodhounds, or a Lynching at Cripple Creek.
- NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL: This Floridian museum houses an exhibit called Louis M. Glackens: Pure Imagination, on display through March 30, 2025. Loaned to the exhibit is a film from the Jones Collection (When Knights Were Bold) used to highlight early film animation.
- Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA: The Glackens exhibition travels to this museum next, and the film will be loaned for this next stop. For more on this exhibit, read this article.
- Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, France: In 2021, a previously lost clip of The Velvet Underground performing at a Vietnam War protest in Dallas made its way to the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival. Emily Cook, former student assistant in the archive, traveled with the film, representing SMU on the runway with the best in film. For more on this, see the 2021 SMU Libraries newsletter and the piece on Cannes.
Pictured left:
The Hamon Arts Library in Dallas, Texas.
Be sure to stay in touch with Hamon to see where the collections travel next!